How to quantify a rich life

A new formula for the Anthropocene

I read “The Neuroscience of Greed” by Dr. Dan Goyal, then I went for a walk. Trudging through the redwood forest, my thoughts were so active that I pulled out my phone to dictate. This piece is an edited version of that dictation. It’s rough, but it’s honest.

I was thinking about the world's richest men and what motivates them. The world's richest men are the world's richest men for a variety of reasons. In some cases I’m sure that talent is part of it. In fact, I did get to know Jeff Bezos a bit in his early years of Amazon, and it was clear there was a brilliant intellect there. There was a person who was driven to understand numbers and use them to his advantage.

But there's something else that drives these men, especially when they are very wealthy: they start paying attention to those lists.

You know the lists I'm talking about. The Forbes lists, the lists of best performing companies—all of those lists are of incredible importance to someone who already has succumbed to greed and is thinking about his actions in terms of maximizing the profit to him.

So let's look at the Forbes 10 richest men list. Except for numbers 6 and 7 (Warren Buffett and Bill Gates) these are all men who essentially are being given a prize for not getting rid of their astonishing amounts of wealth. A modern-day Carnegie would not be on that list, for example. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are working really hard to get themselves off that list.

"He who dies rich, dies disgraced." Andrew Carnegie

The men who are up at the top of that list have no discernible interest in giving away their money, and it's not surprising: If they are motivated by greed, and one of the indicators of their success is being on that list, then why would they do something that would jeopardize their position? Of course, they would do everything they can to stay on that list.

People motivated by greed will behave in ways that get them higher on the list and then cement their positions. Read Dr. Goyal’s piece to get the scientific basis:

The Neuroscience of Greed.

Taking a deeper look at the list

Forbes, as an organization, has never been altruistic. It has always existed to promote the acquisition of money: High-flying companies, highest-paid entertainers, top-performing investments.

The men on these lists are motivated by their greed to improve their standing on such lists, which proves their self-worth. So what does it mean that Forbes creates its lists in a way that rewards this behavior? Is it inevitable that these lists have to exist as they are?

The Forbes lists are designed by actual people. These people who work for Forbes are not billionaires. I think it's pretty safe to say that even their extremely well-paid editor or publisher is not in that esteemed company. But even if they are well paid, they are also, we know, very smart. You don't get to the top of a media empire like that without some intelligence.¹

Let’s use an automotive metaphor here: these guys² at Forbes are sports cars. But at this point, they are intellectual internal combustion engines. My modern, eco-friendly little Korean car can outpace any of them 0 to 60 because it’s made for the modern age and for the future. These guys are muscle cars; they're old fashioned, earth-destroying, brains stuck in a mindset of greed.

Back to them after a little happiness break.

Science tells us what it means to live a rich life

We use the word “rich” in two ways. When we say that people want to live a “rich” life, certainly, money can be part of that. Research tells us that money actually does buy us happiness, but only when we need it to buy goods and services essential to survival. After that, what makes us happy is the richness of life. We find richness in family, work, hobbies, friendships, community—and especially in helping others. Only the greedy think that they can actually find happiness in money.

I dictated the original version of this piece while hiking amongst redwood trees. The ability to do that essentially costs me no money (though maintaining our basic survival in this area is certainly not cheap). And hiking amongst these majestic trees truly enriches my life. Any of you readers can name cost-free activities that enrich your life. So clearly, amassing wealth is only one metric.

Do these billionaires have rich lives? Some of them do, for sure, but the ones who have given into greed to the point where they hoard their money are probably living lives that most of us would call poor.

“Money can’t buy you love.” The Beatles

A modest proposal to Forbes

Here's what I propose to the publisher, the editors, and the people who do the math: They need to change the formula.

The world's richest man is not a meaningful measure in the Anthropocene. We did the experiment of celebrating unbridled capitalism in the last century and it led us to where we are. The climate: In Los Angeles, a population larger than that of most of our states is threatened by unbridled wildfires. The economy: More struggling, more homeless, more bankruptcies… and at the same time more billionaires. The culture: We’re fractured and fractious, playing the blame game the way we used to play Monopoly, poker, or good old-fashioned nookie.

Interested in the writing process? Listen to my rough original

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Let’s find a new formula for what it means to be rich

Poor, middle class, and wealthy people alike can step back and say, What really makes my life rich? But greedy people can't—we clearly see that in the research about greed and what has happened to their brains.

But brains, research has shown us, are plastic. We can make physical changes to our brains by making new choices in how we live our lives. And Forbes, you have your finger on an important button. A new formula for the “world’s richest” won’t just take into account the money they have. It will take into account the money they’ve given away and the social and personal capital they’ve earned.

Look at someone like Mackenzie Scott, formerly Bezos. She started after her divorce as one of the wealthiest people in the world, but she has been working very hard not to die one of the wealthiest people in the world. As her wealth decreases, her life becomes richer.

A new wealth formula for the Anthropocene

This new formula will not focus simply on how much wealth they've amassed: how much their company is worth, how much their real estate is worth, how much they have in the bank. This new formula for success will take into account the personal and social capital they’ve amassed. It will look something like this:

Money in the bank 
+ Value of assets 
+ Equity in business, etc.
+ Amount of money given away last ten years 
+ 10% of that money in personal capital
- debts
- earth-destroying behavior
= True Net Worth (TNW)

Frankly, 10% is a lowball estimate of how much personal capital is worth. When you help others, you become a better person, a richer person, a happier person, a person who feels like your place in this world isn't just taking stuff from other people. Yes, greedy brains think they're being fed by taking stuff from other people, but we've all read A Christmas Carol, right? Even Ebenezer Scrooge, in the end, figured it out.

Then hold that challenge up to our billionaires

Eventually those greedy men will notice the new rewards because—it all comes back to those lit-up brain regions—those men are motivated by greed. Their brains have altered and if they see their position slipping as Bill Gates rises, that will ignite their competitive spirit.

When I was a young adult, the name Bill Gates meant the same thing that we now mean when we now say Elon Musk. Avarice. Absolute ruthless greed. Gates was the leader of a corporation that was almost universally reviled, in my world, at least. Microsoft under Gates was trying to win the capitalist game at all cost. And look at him now. He says he doesn’t want his kids to inherit his money because it would ruin their lives. People can change. And people can change the world.

Forbes, choose the future. Change the equation. Let’s start using numbers as a mirror to show ourselves the true worth of human beings, not just in the wealth they accumulate, but in the good they do with that wealth and the future that they help to build.

“The world has enough for everyone's need, but not enough for everyone's greed.”

Mahatma Gandhi

A beautiful day in the redwoods. Photo by Suki Wessling.

1. Yes, intelligence is a loaded word because we all define it differently, and I'm defining it functionally here: Their brains work really well when it comes to crafting language and crunching numbers.

2. I reserve the right to use “guys” as a non-gendered noun. My teenage students totally support me in this choice.